Drier for footwear



11111822, 1948. M RUSSELL 2,443,695

DRIER FOR FOOTWEAR Filed March 20, 1947 Patented June 22, 1948 sTATEsrTENT OFFICE DRIER FOR FOOTWEAR Charles L. Russell, Huntleigh Woods, M0.

Application March 20, 1947, Serial No. 736,046

1 Claim.

This invention relates to driers for footwear,

may be noted the provision of a drier to which shoes, boots and the like may conveniently be applied for complete drying, including thorough inside drying; the provision of a drier of this class which has efi'icient means for circulating air inside of the footwear; and the provision of a drier of the class described which by efiiciently circulating warm air within the footwear may employ air of a safe temperature without unduly lengthening the drying time and without damage to the footwear. Other objects will be in part apparent and in part pointed out hereinafter.

The invention accordingly comprises the elements and combinations of elements, features of construction, and arrangements of parts which will be exemplified in the structures hereinafter described, and the scope of the application of which will be indicated in the following claim.

In the accompanying drawings, in which one of various possible embodiments of the invention is illustrated,

Fig. 1 is a side elevation of the device with the near side broken open to show the interior; and,

Fig. 2 is a vertical section taken on line 2-2 of Fig. 1.

Similar reference characters indicate corresponding parts throughout the several views of the drawings.

As is known, it is difiicult thoroughly to dry even ordinary shoes in a reasonably short interval of time without risk of damaging the shoes by overheating and stiffening them. This is particularly true of sportsmens shoes, boots and the like which have become thoroughly soaked. The present invention provides convenient means for effecting safe and efficient drying of this class of articles.

Referring now more particularly to the drawings, there is shown at numeral 1 a hollow tapered base in which are two centrifugal blowers B. The inside impellers of these blowers (not shown) are driven from the opposite ends of the shaft of an intermediate common driving motor M. The blowers B have the usual volute casings 5, having central axial inlets I and tangent outlets 9. The motor M is mounted with its shaft horizontal. The inlets I are around a horizontal axis. The outlets 9 are directed upward. Attached to the outlets 9 :are combination blow pipes and supports I I which extend upward from the base I, passing through openings I3 in the latter. The pipes II and the casings 5 are supported from the base I by flanges I5, and the motor M is supported between the casings. It is clear that, if desired, the motor and the casings may have additional supports within the part I.

In the ends of the base I are air inlet openings I'I. Mounted within the base I opposite the openings I1 are electric resistance heater elements I 9. The heaters I 9 are located between the openings I1 and I, respectively, so as to heat the air supplying the blower inlets I. A main line switch 2! serves to energize the motor M and both heaters It. The heaters are wired in'parallel with respect to the motor and in series with one another, although if desired the heaters could be themselves wired in parallel. A separate switch 23 in the heater circuit serves to cut out the heater operation without affecting the motor circuit.

At the upper ends of the pipe supports II are outlets 25, each of which is bisected by means of a diametral baffle plate 21. Each baffle plate extends ;some distance :above the edge of its respective outlet 25 and forms a rest piece. A piece of foot wear (hunting boot) is illustrated by dotted lines at numeral 29 in Fig. 2. The article is inverted and slipped over one of the pipe supports II, the mate being slipped over the other support. The supports are of small enough diameter to accommodate the smallest size of footwear expected. The inside of the arch or an adjacent part of the footwear will rest upon the upper end of the respective baflie 21, as shown at 3!. This prevents the footwear in any position that it may assume, even if carelessly applied, from blocking the egress of air from the outlet. Each bafile also enforces a division of the air flow into two currents, such as indicated by the arrows in Fig. 2, which after circulating respectively through the heel and toe parts of the footwear, escape downward from the inverted (now bottom) opening 33 of the footwear. The pipe supports II are made long enough so that the opening 33 clears the top of the base I for the longest article of footwear which it is expected to dry. Thus it will be seen that the pipe supports II have a substantial length so as to accommodate full-length hunting and wading boots. If the maximum length of footwear is thus properly accommodated, all shorter lengths will also be properly accommodated.

Operation is quite simple, since it is only necessary to close switches 2| and 23 and invert and telescopically apply the inverted footwear over culating air outlets.

the upright pipe supports 1 i. It is held in place by gravity. If it is desired to circulate air with out the help of the heaters 19, the switch 23 may be opened. Circulation of air is continuous through the inside of the footwear and is thoroughly distributed so as to have maximum effect where most needed. The base I forms an air box constraining the air entering inlets H to flow over the heaters I9. In view of the efilcient inside circulation, at much shorter drying period is required for a given air temperature. Hence the often excessively high air temperatures are not necessary.

An advantage of the invention is that the upright pipe supports H form convenient gravity supports for the shoes, as well as providing cir- No careful attention is required in organizing the footwear with the pipe supports H, since each extending baffle 27 ensures that there will always be a free outlet for free passage of the air from the respective outlet 25 into the interior of the footwear.

The indicated. tandem arrangement of the centrifugal type of blowers on each side of the motor with their outlets directed upward and their inlets coaxial and directed laterally, lends itself to an economical structure. Thus the heaters may conveniently bemounted between the inlets land the inlets H of the simple air box constituted by the base I. Continuation of the upwardly directed outlets as footwear supporting pipes II also lends itself to an economical construction for gravity support of the footwear. The same is true of the baiiles 21, which assure proper circulation of air into and through the footwear.

In view of the above, it will be seen that the several objects of the invention are achieved and other advantageous results attained As :many changes could be made in the above constructions without departing. from the scope of the invention, it is intended that all matter contained in the above description or shown in the accompanying drawings shall be interpreted as illustrative and not in a limiting sense.

I claim:

A drier for footwear comprising a hollow boxlike base member having walls forming an enclosure, a motor in the base member having a horizontal shaft, a pair of centrifugal blowers in the base member mounted in tandem at opposite ends of the motor and driven thereby, said blowers having volute casings with upwardly directed outlets, a pair of tubular extensions "from said outlets extending upward through the base member, said blower casings having axial air inlets within the base member, heaters in the base member mounted respectively opposite said inlets, said base member also having air inlets respectively adjacent the heaters, said extensions from the outlets being of diameters adapted telescopically to receive an inverted footwear pair, and bafile means extending from the upper ends of said extensions each respectivelyto be engaged by the bottom} of an applied piece of footwear to prevent obstruction of the outlets of the extensions in the footwear and to enforce a plurality of air currents in the footwear, said extensions being long enough so that the leg openings in the footwear are spaced with respect to the base member.

CHARLES L. PUSSELL.

REFERENCE 8- CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS 

